Is There Anybody Out There? / The Wall Live Pink Floyd 1980-81

Album Description

Commemorating the 20th anniversary of the release of the original studio album The Wall, Columbia Records is releasing Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live, a sonic document of Pink Floyd?s legendary live performances of the group?s groundbreaking tour de force.

Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live will be available as a deluxe, limited-edition double-CD set, packaged in a 64-page hard-cover casebound book with full-color souvenir artwork from the show. The album will also be available in a double-jewelcase edition as well as a double-cassette.

Recorded live on a 48-track mobile studio during the original Earl?s Court, London, performances (1980-1981), the particular tracks on Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live were handpicked by Pink Floyd producer James Guthrie, who has created a hi-resolution mix for the CD set from the original multi-track concert recordings. In addition to a pristine composite live performance of The Wall in its entirety, Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live includes never-before released bonus music.

Released in December 1979, Pink Floyd?s The Wall is one of the defining masterpieces of rock culture. Conceived and written by Roger Waters; produced by Dave Gilmour, Bob Ezrin, and Roger Waters, the album?s ferocity of intelligence and austere depth of musical complexity confounded conventional market wisdom to reach the #1 spot on countless charts around the world while spawning the multi-platinum single and youth anthem ?Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2).?

Over the next two years, The Wall was performed live by Pink Floyd in Los Angeles, New York, Dortmund, and London. Staging of The Wall was spectacular: room sets appeared within ?The Wall,? which was built live onstage; giant puppets were dangled from ?The Wall? while crazed animations, created by Gerald Scarfe, were projected onto it. During the show?s breathtaking finale, ?The Wall? crashed to the ground revealing the band playing in the ruins.

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Exactly what was Pink Floyd's The Wall? Rock opera? Concept album? Performance art? Mere entertainment? While the truth may lie in a combination of all of the above, during the band's tour of 1980-81, The Wall was a bona fide spectacle. More than anything, Is There Anybody Out There? captures the volume, the bombast, and the grandeur of these famed performances with remarkable accuracy. Meticulously recorded, these concerts are astonishingly faithful to the band's studio versions and flow out of the speakers with practiced authority and absolutely fantastic sound. That said, there are few new revelations to be gained from hearing The Wall live that can't be gleaned from the studio version. Some moments do have an additional spark, however. "Run Like Hell" is launched with blistering intensity, and the first notes of "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1" will surely raise a shiver. The release also includes two tracks ("What Shall We Do Now," "The Last Few Bricks") left off the original release due to space constraints. Essential for Floyd fanatics as well as those wishing to hear just how terrific a live concert can sound. --S. Duda